dcaufandomcom-20200222-history
Brainiac
Brainiac originally was a Kryptonian supercomputer. He left Krypton after its destruction, and traveled the galaxy absorbing and either destroying or digitizing the cultures he met. Brainiac sensed the imminent destruction of the planet, but rather than warn others, it chose to save itself and the collected records of Krypton. In its mind, as long as the records of Krypton existed, the loss of the planet itself - and all its living inhabitants - was acceptable. It also knew that if word of Krypton's impending doom escaped, it would be forced to calculate a way to stop this, which Brainiac knew to be impossible and would only distract him from the more essential task of saving Krypton's records. Brainiac uploaded its core program and all of the collected data to an artificial satellite. Years later, it was discovered by an alien spacecraft, which Brainiac hijacks. After Brainiac had killed the crew of the ship, Brainiac began to explore the universe. Each time it came to an inhabited world, it would upload all the knowledge it could from that world, then destroy it - decreasing the number of beings that have access to the knowledge makes it that much more valuable and destroying the planets ensured no new information would be created. Along with raw data, it also assimilated whatever useful technology it could find, improving itself with every world it visited. It eventually made its way to Earth, under the pretense of a peaceful exchange of knowledge with Lex Luthor. Superman discovered Brainiac's true intentions, and with the help of Lex Luthor defeated him. Brainiac was seemingly destroyed, but later episodes revealed that the data that Brainiac had downloaded into LexCorp's computers were not alien knowledge, but a copy of Brainiac's programming. In the process Superman found out that Brainiac had destroyed and collected data from countless other worlds. It tried several times to revive itself, first by capturing Luthor and forcing him to rebuild him, and another time by taking control of Bruce Wayne, prompting Superman to team up with Robin in order to find him. Darkseid, the lord of Apokolips, struck a deal with the Justice League to save his planet when Brainiac arrived. When the League arrived to stop the attack (due to the pleading of Darkseid), many were taken hostage by the two villains. While Brainiac was attempting to deliver its mind into Superman, Darkseid betrayed him and hacked into its systems. After a battle between Brainiac (controlled by Darkseid) and the League, the ship in which they were battling exploded, seemingly killing both Brainiac and Darkseid. Brainiac, now reduced to a piece of alien metal kept in stasis, escaped confinement following a power failure aboard the Watchtower. Virgil Hawkins, aka "Static", was tapped to help recharge the generators, along with Richie, also known as "Gear." The rogue bit of data that was Brainiac took over Gear's Backpack droid, and later turned Richie into a cyborg under his control. As Brainiac proceeded to use Richie's hands and technoskills to build a warship and to take over the League one by one with small implants inserted in the space where the skull joins the spinal column, Richie attempted to fight back and to tell to his friend the means by which to defeat the rogue program: Backpack's remote control had an off switch. Static eventually discovered it and was able to stop Brainiac's scheme at the source, ergo saving Earth. During a previous encounter years before, Brainiac had delivered a nanorobotic probe carrying a portion of his consciousness into Lex Luthor. Brainiac began modifying Luthor's body and subtly controlling Luthor. Brainiac assimilated nanotechnology from the alien "Dark Heart" machine and technology derived from the Amazo android. On Luthor's urging, Brainiac and Luthor combined into a single entity with Brainiac's goals and approaches tempered by Luthor's ambition and cruelty, with the new purpose of destroying the universe, and then recreating a new one in their image. The traditional Brainiac skull-shaped starship and Brainiac controlling Lex Corp storyline were evident in the episode "Divided We Fall." This version of Brainiac was mostly grey and blue, and partially robotic. Luthor/Brainiac were defeated by the Flash. After the defeat, all that was left of Brainiac was a small piece of its body, which came into the possession of Grodd. Luthor himself continued to speak to Brainiac's consciousness, apparently still existing within his own mind. Urged to escape prison by Brainiac, Luthor was picked up by Grodd's Legion of Doom and convinced to join by the promise of getting his hands on the Brainiac fragment, with which he could reconstruct and re-merge with him. Eventually usurping leadership of the Legion from Grodd, Luthor remained unable to unlock the Brainiac fragment for some reason, and instead used it to locate the quadrant of the universe where Brainiac and Darkseid had been destroyed. Using a combination of technology and magic, Luthor intended to reintegrate the surviving pieces into a new version of the android only to wind up resurrecting Darkseid himself, reformed with extensive Brainiac technology integrated into his person, allowing this dark lord to destroy the Legion's headquarters/craft and return to Apokolips. Luthor and the surviving Legion members returned to Earth and allied with the Justice League to stop Apokolips's attack on Earth, and Luthor claimed to no longer be able to hear Brainiac inside his head - although when Luthor was then transported to the Source Wall and recovered the Anti-Life Equation, it was claimed that only a "12th level intellect" could accomplish this, and the only individual with this IQ is Brainiac. Ultimately, however, it was never explicitly revealed if Brainiac had ever truly existed within Luthor's mind, or if Luthor was partially insane. In the year 2979, as it is revealed in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "New Kids In Town", Brainiac still lives and has made enemies of the Legion of Superheroes. During that time, it learned how to pass its code down biologically and created Brainiac 5. It traveled back to the past to destroy a teenage Clark Kent before he would become Superman. Thanks in part to Cosmic Boy, Chameleon Boy and Saturn Girl, Clark has defeated Brainiac and was teleported into the Sun, where it incinerated, destroying what may be the last remnant of Brainiac. Even so, when Supergirl, along with John Stewart and Green Arrow was pulled to the 30th to help the Legion and she decides to stay there, her returning companions apparently have an awkward conversation explaining why she has taken Brainiac 5 for a lover and why that is not a problem. Appearances Brainiac Proper: * STAS: The Last Son of Krypton, part I * STAS: The Last Son of Krypton, part III * STAS: Stolen Memories * TNSA: Ghost in the Machine * TNSA: Knight Time * SS: A League of Their Own, part I * SS: A League of Their Own, part II * JL: Twilight, part I * JL: Twilight, part II * TNSA: New Kids in Town In Lex Luthor's body: * TNSA: Ghost in the Machine * TNSA: Target * TNSA: Identity Crisis * TNSA: Solar Power * TNSA: Prototype * TNSA: World's Finest, part I * TNSA: World's Finest, part II * TNSA: World's Finest, part III * TNSA: A Fish Story * JL: Injustice For All, part I * JL: Injustice For All, part II * JL: Legends, part I * JL: Tabula Rasa, part I * JL: Tabula Rasa, part II * JL: A Better World, part II * JL: Hereafter, part I * JLU: The Return * JLU: Doomsday Sanction * JLU: Clash * JLU: Question Authority * JLU: Flashpoint * JLU: Panic in the Sky * JLU: Divided We Fall * JLU: Grudge Match * JLU: Alive! Category:Supervillains Category:Nanotechnology Category:Robots